Shelter gets holiday food from center
This Thanksgiving, the occupants of Robin's Home will be thankful for employees of the Ellen O'Brien Gaiser Center as they sit around the dinner table.
In preparation of the upcoming holiday, the Gaiser Center organized its first-ever food drive this year to benefit Robin's Home, the Butler shelter for women veterans. On Tuesday, the center's employees delivered a minivan's-worth of food, water and household supplies, such as toilet paper, that Robin's Home needed.
Joe Mahoney, executive director of the Gaiser Center, said his employees were glad to help Robin's Home.
“We wanted to give back,” Mahoney said. “(Robin's Home founder) Mary (Chitwood) gave us a list of what they would need, and we had sign-ups to get everything.”
Robin's Home offers shelter for women military veterans, as well as other services, including counseling to help clients find permanent housing while residing in the shelter. Chitwood, the shelter's executive director, said Robin's Home has helped more than two dozen clients since its founding in 2019.
She expects 10 people to attend the dinner Thursday, including some clients who had recently moved out of Robin's Home.
Chitwood emerged from her facility Tuesday surprised to see the numerous boxes of food that the Gaiser Center provided.
“I think we have more than enough,” Chitwood said. “This is amazing.”
Chitwood said she was happy to give the Gaiser Center a list of needs to allow clients a say in their holiday dinner. “That was really nice, we got to choose what we wanted to cook this year,” she said.
Other occupants of the shelter also thanked the Gaiser Center employees as they transferred the food to the fridge.
Ave Jack, executive assistant at the Gaiser Center, said the center started getting more than just Thanksgiving food to donate once the dinner was covered.
“We wanted to have the Thanksgiving food first,” Jack said. “Then, we got household items.”
Mahoney is in his first year working as executive director of the Gaiser Center, and said he wanted to start a new drive to make a local impact. He chose Robin's Home because of the similarity of service provided by the two organizations.
“Part of it is because we both have women's services,” Mahoney said. “We wanted to give to something with a similar mission to us, and we both have women-focused programs.”
